Catholics
United describes
itself as a “non-partisan” organization that uses online advocacy
and educational activities to promote “the message of justice and
the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition.”
The group's earliest roots can be traced to the spring of 2004, when
an alliance of religious activists formed the Catholic Voting Project
(CVP) to promote the U.S. Catholic Bishops' 2003 document,
Faithful
Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility,
which
was subsequently retitled Forming
Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.
CVP's mission
was to “encourage a public dialog about faith and politics that
went beyond the tired rhetoric of partisan interests.” In 2005,
CVP incorporated formally as a 501(c)(4)
nonprofit organization called Catholics United (CU).

Woven
throughout CU's agenda is a desire to radically change an American
society that is “marred
by deepening disparities between rich and poor.” This objective is
founded on CU's interpretation of a scriptural
directive exhorting Christians to remember that “the least among
us”—i.e.,
the “weak, vulnerable, and most in need”—“deserve
preferential concern.” CU's
specific policy positions fall under the following major categories:

CU
states unequivocally that abortion “is
never morally acceptable and must always be opposed”; that cloning
and the destruction of human embryos “for research or even for
potential cures” are “always wrong”; and that assisted suicide
and euthanasia are not “act[s] of mercy,” but rather,
“unjustifiable assault[s] on human life.”

By
the same token, however, CU
cautions
people of faith not to “reduce Catholic moral concerns to one or
two matters.” And “pro-life” positions, says the organization,
cannot be defined solely in terms of opposition to abortion or
euthanasia. Rather, they also encompass “finding more effective
ways to prevent conflicts” and to “resolve them by peaceful
means.” Thus, CU maintains, even proponents of taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand
can claim to be “pro-life” if they adopt pacifist stances vis à
vis military and foreign-policy matters.

While conceding that
military force can sometimes be justified as a last resort when all
efforts for diplomacy have failed, CU demands that such force “not
be indiscriminate or disproportionate”—meaning
that the use of weapons-of-mass-destruction or “other means of
warfare that do not distinguish between civilians and soldiers” is
“fundamentally immoral.” Further, CU asserts that the United
States has a responsibility to “reduce its own reliance” on such
weapons “by pursuing progressive nuclear disarmament.”

Yet
another position that “pro-life” individuals should adopt, says
CU, is opposition to the death penalty, which “cannot be justified”
under any circumstances, particularly in light of the “unfairness
and injustice” with which it is applied to poor and nonwhite
convicts.

CU declares that marriage
must be “defined, recognized, and protected as a lifelong
commitment between a man and a woman”; it opposes requirements
mandating that healthcare plans must cover the cost of contraceptives
and abortifacients, thereby forcing many religious people to
“compromise their moral convictions”; and it approves the use of
tax credits and publicly funded scholarships to help parents of
“modest means” exercise their “fundamental right to choose the
education best suited to the needs of their children, including
public, private, and religious schools.”

But CU also asserts
that “pro-family” positions include such articles of progressive
faith as support for “living
wage”
laws that “allow workers to support their families”; easy and wide access
to “public assistance”; and government-imposed “regulation”
designed to “limit concentration of media control, resist
management [of media outlets] that is primarily focused on profit,
and encourage a variety of program sources.”

CU calls
for the elimination of “barriers to equal pay and employment” for
the multitudes of Americans allegedly “facing unjust
discrimination” based on “race, religion, sex, ethnicity,
disabling condition, or age.” Reasoning from the premise that
capitalism is inherently rife with inequity, the organization urges
workers, employers, and labor unions to collaboratively “build a
more just economy” and thereby “advance the common
good.” Moreover, CU calls for society to “take positive steps
[i.e., affirmative
action] to overcome the legacy of injustice” wherever it may
exist.

Welfare policies that “provide a safety net for those
who cannot work” are vitally important, says CU, which thus advocates massive public funding for programs that cover the costs of food,
child care, healthcare, housing, and transportation for low-income
people.

“The Gospel mandate to 'welcome the
stranger,'” says CU, forms the basis of the organization's plea for
Catholics to “care for and stand with immigrants, both documented
and undocumented.” “Comprehensive reform” to America's
immigration system is “urgently necessary,” CU adds, and should
include “a temporary work program with worker protections and a
path to permanent residency”; “family reunification policies”;
a “broad and fair legalization program”; “access to legal
protections” and “essential public programs”; and “refuge for
those fleeing persecution and exploitation.”

To remedy
America's “broken” criminal-justice system, meanwhile, CU
advocates a “remedial, rather than a strictly punitive, approach to
offenders.”

Yet another major “moral issue” facing
humanity, says CU, is the preservation of the natural environment.
Toward that end, the organization demands that political leaders and
policymakers “seriously address global climate change” by
focusing not on maximizing profits, but rather on “pursuit of the
common good”—especially
in light of
global warming's potentially disastrous consequences for the
“vulnerable” populations of the world's “poorest nations.”
Because of the disproportionate degree to which pollution
associated with American commercial activity has purportedly degraded
the earth's environment since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution,
CU reasons that the U.S. “should lead in contributing to the
sustainable development of poorer nations and promoting greater
justice in sharing the burden of environmental blight, neglect, and
recovery.”[1]

Likewise, CU contends that the United States
“should take a leading role in helping to alleviate
global poverty”
through “more equitable trade policies” as well as “substantially
increased development aid” for the world's poorest countries.

Another “especially urgent priority,” says CU, is for
America to play a leading role in arranging comprehensive Mideast
peace negotiations that will eventually lead to “a just and
peaceful resolution that respects the legitimate claims and
aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians.”

NOTE:

[1] In March 2014, CU executive director James Salt lauded the Obama
Administration for its “success
in reducing carbon emissions.”